Friday, July 16, 2010

The return of Primeval

Dinosaur hunting in the Bentall Centre, Kingston upon Thames

Agent Triple P has always enjoyed nonsensical, time travelling, alternative universe, prehistoric creature, science fiction show Primeval and was annoyed that it was cancelled last year by ITV, leaving our heroes and heroines in a nasty cliffhanger situation. ITV announced that it would be concentrating on "post-watershed drama". In other words, they would prefer to show dreadful (and cheap) reality TV shows during peak hour viewing rather than go head to head with Dr Who especially with the very expensively effects heavy Primeval. But, in a way that hardly ever happens, ITV have done a 180 degree turn and announced two more series to be shown next year; which are currently filming. This is all down to a clever deal that spreads the cost of the series between original partners Impossible Pictures and ITV and new partners UKTV, BBC Worldwide and German station Pro 7.

Velociraptor in John Lewis china department!

Agent Triple P enjoys spotting the local locations which are used for the series: Surrey University in Guildford, Thorpe Park and, most entertainingly, the Bentall Centre and John Lewes in Kingston; Agent Triple P's local department store, where a velociraptor caused havoc in the china department. The producers paid John Lewis £5,000 to film there and the store donated the money to the local Princess Alice Hospice just up the road from Triple P in Esher.

Filming series four in Dublin in April this year

Most of the last season's cast are back with the addition of some new characters, most significantly including one played by Alexander Siddig, Dr Bashir from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

We had actually not watched the last episode of series 3 because we knew about the cliffhanger ending but now we can watch it happy in the knowledge that that particular scene will be resolved when series four shows in January. Hooray!

Hannah looking like a threepenny chew

Now all we need is another Hannah Spearritt appearance to match the notorious pink knickers scene from series one!